The Washington Capitals’ 2022-23 season ended with the team reflecting on their first summer out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2014, an injury-ravaged campaign, and a bevy of changes in the offing for the club in addition to the (almost-filled) vacancies behind the bench needing to be filled.
Among the notable players who missed time this past season with injury was 2022 offseason addition Connor Brown, who was acquired by General Manager Brian MacLellan in a trade with the Ottawa Senators. Just four games into the young season, Brown tore his ACL in a game against the Vancouver Canucks, missing the entirety of the regular season after undergoing surgery to repair the torn ligament.
“Honestly, you know what, the surgery was great”, said Brown in an appearance on the Mitts Off With Luke Gazdic podcast, “It was nice to go after [Capitals right wing] Tom Wilson did his surgery, and so he kind of was able to help with a surgeon to pick, and the rehab has been going really well. I’m six months removed from surgery, and I’m feeling good again.”
Brown, who was acquired in large part to fill the void left by Wilson’s absence from his own ACL rehab, described the moment of injury as “just unnatural”.
“I knew something was wrong”, Brown revealed, “I didn’t even try [to put weight on it]…and I just went right down the tunnel. I remember taking a couple steps down the tunnel and just kind of collapsed, took a knee in the tunnel.”
“More so out of just I couldn’t believe it, you know, I really felt, I could tell it was a big one, it was a serious injury…it was deflating for sure. And you go through something like that, you learn a lot about yourself…all you can do is just work as hard as you can, get yourself out of that hole…”
Capitals’ Brown Likely Out For Season After Undergoing ACL Surgery But Not Ruled Out
Brown, who at 29-years old is entering Unrestricted Free Agency come July 1, is in a far different situation entering the free market, as outlined here by NoVa Caps’ Jon Sorensen. While his future as a Washington Capitals is unclear at best, the District left a positive impression on Brown.
“I loved it, I loved it”, Brown told Gazdic, “Honestly, great guys. That team, that core has been around since I was in junior, a fan of the NHL.”
“It was honestly a lot of fun to get to know [Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin] Ovi, John Carlson, and Tommy Wilson, good Toronto boy. They have a great locker room and there’s a reason that they’ve won multiple President’s Trophies, a Cup. You can kind of see that in there, they’re just very sure of themselves.”
Ovechkin and Wilson, whose absence to start the season left a big hole in the Caps’ lineup, are part of the team’s veteran core and arguably its most important players. While Brown did not play with them for very long, his time as a Capital left a positive impression about the team’s rugged wingers.
“He’s just one in a million”, Brown responded when asked to describe Ovechkin, “He’s just a monster of a man…he’s just an anomaly, he’s something special. His charisma and his personality is so great for the game. He was a lot of fun.”
Both Brown and Wilson hail from Toronto, and having played against each other growing up and now in the NHL, Wilson’s success is not a surprise to his teammate.
“He’s just like, made in a lab. But it’s not by accident too though. That’s the thing, you play against these guys; I’ve played against Tommy Wilson since we were five-years old…we never actually got to play on the same club still”, Brown joked.
“It’s nice to watch a guy like that go about his process. It’s not an accident he is where he is, and he’s had the kind of career he’s had so far. He trains so hard and he does his due diligence, and his diet is dialed. Every point of preparation, he’s prepared.”
While Brown’s future as a Capital is uncertain, the former sixth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs seems to be approaching the process with an open mind. ”
“There’s so many moving parts of figuring out where you’re going to land”, Brown said, “Whether that’s you personally, your family…it’s almost best to, I’ve tried to table my thoughts on the whole thing.
“Focus on getting better, focus on being excited to be home. It’s hard to do that, it’s hard to say ‘I wanna be here’, ‘I wanna be there, this is going to be a perfect situation for me’, because a lot of the times it’s not gonna end up…the unknown is obviously tough”, says Brown, who is expecting his first child.
“I have a lot of unknown coming up, where I’m going to be. For me I’m just making sure I’m personally as prepared as possible, and let the chips fall where they may and just have faith in the universe.”
To hear Brown’s full conversation, click HERE
By Michael Fleetwood